Prior
to any building Bryan Newkirk, Duck Key developer, had to
obtained certain baybottom lands around the island of
Duck Key from the State of Florida and connect the island
with the Overseas Highway. He was deeded the necessary
baybottom lands and began construction of a small bridge
and earthen causeway leading from the highway to Duck Key
in 1952.

LANDSCAPING

Newkirk
then constructed a one story workshed and nursery
building (1952). As the island was largely scarified from
canal building and landfilling Newkirk had much
landscaping to do. The nursery started with 6 acres of
young trees and plants. As the plants grew and flourished
they were transplanted to other parts of the island which
were barren.

ADMINISTRATION
BUILDING AND GENE OTTO

The
oldest remaining structure and a dominant focal point on
Duck Key is the resort's Administration Building which is
built in a West Indian style. This charming architectural
prize rests peacefully just off Duck Key Drive and the
entrance to Hawk's Cay. Surrounded by a green jungle of
tropical trees, palms, and banana plants, the building
gives a feeling of solidity and permanence as though it
must have been on the island since the days of wreckers
in the Florida Keys.

Built
in 1954, this patioed and balconied structure typifies
the Caribbean architecture and atmosphere the builders of
Duck Key were trying to create. The interior of the
Administration Building's upper floor has undergone many
changes from its original design, but the upper chambers
still surround a narrow spiral steel stairway leading to
what was once an observation deck from which guests and
prospective buyers could view the island.

Visitors
entered rooms shaded by plantation blinds and looked out
windows which were of double hung sash construction.
Fifties-style aluminum jalousie windows were not
considered as they did not fit the West Indian
architectural theme. The interior walls were hung with a
tropical wall paper picturing vines and monkeys. Built to
last and at considerable expense the building has stood
the test of time.

The
Caribbean theme was the inspiration of Gene Otto, a
widely known Key West artist. According to Otto, all the
houses were to have "earth-colored tile roofs, with wide
overhanging eaves like so many older houses encountered
at Key West, Jamaica and other Caribbean islands." The
first private residences built all kept to the West
Indian architectural theme.

An
old postcard Image of the Administration
Building

Text
image from reverse side of Administration Building
Postcard.
The apartments were used to house by prospective buyers.

Gene Otto
was also instrumental in the design of the Venetian
Bridges connecting the islands of Duck Key. Pictured
above is an old postcard showing the Harbour Island
Bridge. The Plantation Bridge can be seen in the
background.

From left to right : Gene Otto, Mitchell Wolfson, Gloria Swanson, and unnamed protege of Swanson

MORE ON GENE OTTO

Robert Eugene Otto was born in Key West in 1900. He lived at 524 Eaton Street. Otto started using his middle name "Eugene" around the time he was given a doll that was crafted to look like him. Eugene named the doll "Robert".

Young Gene Otto became very attached to the doll. Gene and the doll Robert go to town dressed alike in sailor suits.There are a number of bizzare stories associate with Gene and the doll Robert. Many accounts report that Gene would blame the doll when something went astray in his home. Rather than accept blame Gene would often say "Robert did it".

One account tells that Robert the doll was banished to the turret room in the spire of the Otto Victorian mansion by his parents. Another story reports that some time after Gene Otto was married and having returned to his childhood home he had a room built in the spire which he had scaled down to the doll's size.

Otto House with portion of turret spire shown

As a young man Gene Otto pursued art studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Chicago and the Art Students League in New York. Otto travelled to Paris and there developed a style particular to him. In Paris he met his wife Anne (Annette Parker). They married in 1930. When Anne completed her music studies the Ottos moved to New York City. Both pursued their careers. As an accomplished pianist Anne performed at Rockefellar Center's famed Rainbow Room.

Gene Otto and Anne moved to Key West and would live in the inherited family home for the next 40 years. Gene worked at his art and Anne utilized her time with domestic endeavors. A paintings by Otto hangs in Hemingway’s House in Key West.

Gene died in 1974. His remains are buried at the Key West Cemetery. Toward the end of his life it is reported that Gene Otto was abusive of his wife. When confronted by authorities he would claim it was the fault of Robert the doll.

Anne Otto moved up north and died in 1976. Anne had rented the house and left Robert the doll in the turret room. Robert the doll was well-known by now, because of the many eerie and curious stories associated with him. Supposedly after Anne's demise relatives put Robert in a trunk which they left in the turret room.

Somehow Robert wound up at the home of a woman who lived on Van Phister Street. Robert sat on the woman's porch most days. There is an account of a strange happening with Robert's at that Van Phister Street residence.

Robert the doll in sailor suit - East Martello Museum

In 1994 Robert was given to the East Martello Museum in Key West and is a very popular attraction because of the many strange happenings associated with his past. Some museum personnel and visitors continue to believe Robert causes problems.

GAMBLING

Over the
years people have related stories that the Indies House
was built as a place for gambling.

Dick
Philpott of Boynton Beach, Florida wrote
e-mail

"I
knew Les Barrett, and I remember seeing the Indies
House the first week it was opened. I was a small boy
with my Father... and it seems to me that I remember
him taking me up to the top floor and the room was
filled with casino equipment. I remember a gaming
wheel on its side. After Haydon Burns got in as
Governor and he changed his mind about gambling,
well... we never heard anything more about the casino.
I heard that all that money went over to the islands
where gambling was legal."

INDIES
HOUSE AND ARCHITECT MORRIS LAPIDUS

Newkirk
formed the Florida Southern Land Company in 1956 and sold
stock to raise money for the building of the Indies Inn.
The Indies Inn opened in January of 1960.

Bryan Newkirk, wanted the hotel to have a West Indian theme.
Lucille, Newkirk's wife, was instrumental in the selection
of Morris Lapidus as the archtect for the hotel on Duck
Key. Lucile while on a trip to the island of Jamaica
liked the Arawak Hotel which has been designed by the
architect Lapuidus. The Newkirks selected the name "Indies House" for their new hotel building, and Lapidus
gave the Indies House a tropical island feel.

The
entrance to the Indies House had a flat covered portico
for cars, guest reception and for the unloading of
luggage. The original facade of the Indies Inn pictured
below can still be seen if one looks carefully behind
canvas and landscaping.

Note pattern on exterior wall pictured below. This is exterior of the lobby's famous colored glass wall.

Guests
entered a spacious lobby called the Bamboo Room. Indies
House literature described the lobby as,

"Of
all the public areas, it is the Bamboo Room which sets
the romantic atmosphere for each evening. Here, one
can sip exotic drinks in an atmosphere likened to such
faraway islands as Barbados and Jamaica. "

The
lobby had bamboo columns, a straw thatched roof and
mystic island masks focusing on the Caribbean islands.
Lapidus contrasted this with modern furniture and hanging
lamps of the 50s style and a shiny tile floor with a
repeating chevron pattern in the Bamboo lobby.

Image of lobby from old Indies House postcard
showing the "famous colored glass wall of the fabulous INDIES INN, Duck Key, Florida."

Lapidus
also designed a quaint Caribbean Card Room pictured below
for the Indies House which featured modern maple wood
decor and gaily coloreds matted scenes of the Caribbean
Islands.

Pictured
below is a portion of the Lapidus presentation drawings
for the Indies House.
An
oval driveway is shown at the right side of drawing. The
Main Lobby or Bamboo Room is colored in yellow for
purposes of identification. An indoor lounge and circular
bar was accessible from the lobby. The pink area shows
the location of the circular cocktail lounge with an oval
bar off a wide hallway leading to the octagonal dining
room. As indicated below in the section called Indies
Inn Additions and Remodeling the Bamboo Room, the
Caribbean Room and the circular cocktail room were
eliminated due to major renovation in 1984.

A 1961 article in the Miami News provides the name for the Lapidus designed cocktail loungeat Indies House. Identified as Drakes Cove Cocktail Lounge, Lapidus created a sea-like atmosphere with a mural under-water scene on the wall behind the oval bar. Colored filtered lights created unusual patterns.

The article in the Miami News described the hotel as "luxrious Indies House on spacious Duck Key". Duck Key is described as a site "transformed into five interconnected islands with sites for plush homes, hotels, and apartments. . . . strategically located near the world's most famous fishing waters. The flats around the island are teeming with bonefish."

The large octagonal dining room was identified as the "Fundo Mundo' room,which roughly translates to "American world".

MORRIS
LAPIDUS

Morris
Lapidus gained fame as a Florida resort architect when he
was commissioned to design the 560-room, 14-story
Fontainebleu Hotel in Miami Beach which opened in 1954.
It took Lapidus a year to convince Florida hotel man, Ben
Novack who was building the Fountainebleu to give him the
commission. Lapidus has never done an entire hotel before
but had worked for Novack, as associate architect of the
Sans Souci. Lapidus also had experience as an associate
architect in the building of other hotels such as the
Nautilus, the Algiers and the Biltmore
Terrace.

The
customary style of architecture at that time was either
the box-like rectilinear building of post-war America or
the classical style of architecture seen in European
capitals. Lapidus would have none of that. He rejected
conventional architecture and produced the concaved
shaped Fontainbleu Hotel that curved in a long arch
fronting the ocean beach.

The
interior of the hotel ombined no less than 27 colors and
had what was referred to as the staircase to nowhere.
Actually the staircase led to a modest cloakroom where
famous guests could leave their coats, then desend the
staircase in their finery and sparkling jewelry to the
estatic gaze of the crowds in the Fontainebleu lobby.

The
Fontainbleu was not well received by the critics and the
architectural elite. The critics went crazy. Lapidus'
work was descibed as "superslock" and as far as critics
were concerned the Flontainebleu was a "colossal flop".
New York Times architect critic, Ada Huxtable, having
seen the Fontainebleu described her feelings,

"I
was depressed in direct ratio of esthetic illiteracy
and hockey pretentions to the shoddyiness of the
execution. I got a terrible case of the
Fontaine-blues."

Yet
another critic described the Fontainebleau as ''the
nation's grossest national product.'' Lapidus on the
other hand referred to the Fontainebleau proudly as ''the
world's most pretentious hotel.''

Lapidus
would later design the Eden Roc Hotel (Miami Beach) and
the Americana Hotel (now the Sheraton in Bal Harbour,
Fl.) So that guests would "know they were in Florida." Lapidus put live alligators in a 40 foot high terrarium
in the lobby of the Americana.

Critics
described Lapidus's Miami Beach hotels as "boarding house
baroque," " gauche, " "emblems of tail-fin chic," and
"pornography of architecture". The Miami Herald
humorously commented "probably not too disturbing to
people who have lost their eyesight."

Hotels
designed by Lapidus in the United States, the Caribbean
and Europe are listed below:

Lapidus'
buildings, critics have commented recently, have
deservedly become popular American landmarks. His
innovation designs and use of color, lighting, and fabric
are now accepted staples of American architecture, and
the influence of Lapidus can be seen in such modern-day
Las Vegas hotels as Caesar's Palace, and the Luxor,
hotels which provide fun, luxury, and fantasy. In the
past, architectural publications and critics in the press
were dismissive of his art. Once described as a designer
to the "great mass of people who don't know the
difference between architecture and Coney Island", today
Lapidus is hailed as a "Mid-Century Modernist".

INDIES
HOUSE ADDITIONS AND REMODELING

The
Indies Inn and resort look radically different from what
a visitor saw some 40 years earlier. The hotel and resort
have changed many times during that period. The original
building had only 100 rooms, and a swimming pool and salt
water lagoon for swimming.

Shown
above is a panoramic view from a 1962 postcard showing
the resort, pool and lagoon.

After
the work of Newkirk and Morris Lapidus, the Indies House
experienced additions and modifications. From
1963 to1971, the Indies House and Island changed
ownership five times. Between 1978 to 1983 the hotel
expanded to 160 rooms and changed ownership twice
more.

Postcard
of artist rendering of Indies House in the
1970s.

The
expansion to 160 rooms occurred in 1976 when owner Herb
Cameron added a 60 unit wing to the Indies Inn. Later
that year he added a fifth story roof top restaurant. The
construction of the restaurant met with resistance from
the adjacent residential community. Although the
restaurant was completed, subsequent litigation and
agreements caused the restaurant area to be changed into
4 penthouse accommodations.

INDIES INN AND YACHT CLUB

Herb Cameron chose the name Indies Inn and Yacht Club for the resort. The Indies Inn became a happening place. The image below shows an ad which appeared in a Miami newspaper. The ad portrays the Indies Inn as the place where many good looking girls come to stay on the weekend.

"We're not going to tell you that every good looking girl in Miami splits for Indies Inn every weekend. But we . . . get our share. And then some. Not to mention all the single guys who come because they know."

And the price was right.

"$50.00 and you can bring your own roomate for only $20.00 more. That includes room for two nights, Sipwreck Dinner, Smorgesbord, Champagne Brunch and three complimentary drinks."

HAWK'S CAY

In
1983 the Indies Inn is bought by the Barrington Group and
closed for almost a year for renovations. The resort
renamed Hawk's Cay was completely remodeled and made into
a destination resort complex with 178 rooms, a conference
center, all resort amenities, expanded tennis facilities,
and a refurbished marina. The nine hole par 3 course
designed by Trent Jones was removed to make room for a
resort expansion approved in 1986.

Although
Lapidus' love for the curved line can still be seen in
the octagonal dining room which exists to this day, much
of his original design disappeared with the renovations
of 1984 and renaming of the hotel as the Hawk's Cay
Resort.

Above: The
old portico was given a radically different look with the
use of more wood and a peaked roof.

Postcard image of the Indies House portico 1960s

The Barrington Group (Hawk's Cay) had the lobby broken
up into smaller partitions, tropical mahogany furniture
added and more than 80 French doors utilized in the
decor. The indoor bar, Bamboo Room amd Caribbean Room
were done away with and replaced with a bar and Cantina
Restaurant built next to the pool.The new owners brought
in one thousand trees and plants for landscaping.
Concrete around the circular pool/basin was removed and
replaced with tons of sand to create the swimming and
sailing lagoon. A salt water dolphin pen by the lagoon
was built and permits obtained for a dolphin training
facility.

1999 Hawk's Cay Village

The
4000 square foot convention center was
expanded.

Between
1999 and 2002, the Resort's facilities were again
expanded with the addition to the rental pool of several
hundred family style "conch" houses identified as Hawk's Cay Village. A 10,000 square foot
conference center was also added together with 3 new
pools and the Indies Club Recreation facility. A Spa
facility was added to the Indies Club in 2002.

The villas of Hawk's Cay Village were built by Pritim Singh and sold to independent investors and and are not resort management. Most owners have place their units in the resort's rental management program.

2007

The resort is sold to the Northview Hotel Group. Northview expects to undertake $27 million for renovations and improvements of the Indies Inn and grounds. Individual villas will be upgraded also as part of the overall packaging and branding of the resort which could bring the entire expense for the upgrade to around $40 million.